


Memories

by hentailobster



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Family, at isla de muerta, it's a Thing now shut up, leave me and my weird headcanon alone, matching scars in their hands okay, official post-awe canon? idk her, they all got scars okay, they're a family and jack is the weird uncle you can't change my mind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 06:51:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15237795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hentailobster/pseuds/hentailobster
Summary: None of them will ever forget





	1. Elizabeth

Elizabeth doesn’t scar easily. 

The ship’s doctor- a grumpy, Chinese old lady- says that’s for the best whenever she has to patch Elizabeth up after a battle. Elizabeth never really thinks about it, but it does make the white line across her palm feel a little out of place. 

The first time Henry asks about it he’s seven years old and Elizabeth isn’t entirely sure if she should tell the story. She ends up leaving a lot of what happened out, but Henry still seems to find it all coherent and surprisingly exciting. It’s funny how the fascination with pirates seems to run in the family, even though in Henry’s case it’s a little more suiting than when Elizabeth was young. He’s growing up on a pirate ship after all. 

For the next year Elizabeth has to tell the story of the cursed treasure, the heroic captain Sparrow (She can barely say that with a straight face) and most importantly- Will, many, many times. Each time she’ll tell a little more until Henry knows even the parts she’d rather not think about. How many times she was certain they wouldn’t make it out alive. The fear of having to stand before a crowd of pirates chanting, waiting for blood. The disappointment of not getting any help and the frustration of not being taken seriously. It’s all so hard to explain to a child, but Henry is clever and when he notices that she doesn’t enjoy telling it he soon starts asking for other stories. 

Now and then he’ll ask about the scar, though. One day he gets sick, no one knows why and the ship’s doctor says he might not make it. His condition gets worse and worse and Elizabeth can’t stand leaving his bedside. She stays with him, not eating and only sleeping when she passes out from exhaustion. It gets to the point where she, who’s always tried to remain optimistic, truly believes she’s going to lose yet another person important to her. During those days, Henry often asks to hear the ”Story about the scar”. And Elizabeth tells it. Every time he wants to hear it she tells it, as enthralling as she can, making everything into a grand and epic battle against wicked pirates, who wanted nothing but to commit wicked acts of wickedness. If Barbossa could hear her he’d sure be upset, but Henry enjoys the exaggerated and simplified version much better. So that’s what she tells. She tells it until one day, the ship’s doctor says Henry will live. As he slowly starts recovering she gets back to the helm more often, but she’ll always take some time to care for her son. And now and then she’ll tell the story again. 

She always takes some time after each battle. A loss of life is unavoidable and she’s learned to make the most of it. She’ll stand by the railing as the _Dutchman_ rises from the waves and if she gets the time she’ll speak to Will. Henry joins as well, of course, and the first time it happens after his illness he excitedly asks if he can see Will’s scar as well. At first, Will looks puzzled, then he opens his palm to show the scar. Henry looks amazed by it and asks about a million questions. (”Did it hurt?” ”What did it feel like when the curse was lifted?” ”Do you think your blood is still in the chest?”)

When Henry goes to say hello to his grandfather Will and Elizabeth talk about the story. Elizabeth tells him how she’s been retelling the events to their son and Will laughs. It’s nice. They get a moment when they can focus on the few things that are good about their lives. Then Will has to leave and Elizabeth has to go back to her own ship and it’s tears that have to be hidden from Henry because she has to be strong for him, and having to restrain her son from literally jumping onto a sinking ship. When it’s all over and Henry has gone to sleep that night she stays at the helm for much longer than necessary. Her hands have grown calloused over the years, so different from how they were back then. Elizabeth traces the scar across her palm with a finger and she thinks about how long ago that was. It’s somehow a good memory compared to everything else she and Will have gone through, because that story had a happy ending. 

Elizabeth dreads the day she’ll have to tell Henry about what happened after that.


	2. Will

Will hasn’t thought about the scar in years. 

It doesn’t really stick out, he used to be a blacksmith so his hands are covered in little scars. Yet this one is important. It’s something between him and Elizabeth. And Jack too, he figures, but that’s something else. He hasn’t run into Jack in all these years and he can safely admit he’s happy about that. At least when he’s all alone in his cabin. Because it means Jack is doing well at keeping himself alive and is still the same Jack that Will met more than ten years ago. Always negotiating, rather than fighting. There’ll be no souls to ferry after one of Jack’s raids. 

It’s strange to Will how one scar reminds him of the two people he owes his life to. Both in a literal and figurative sense. It’s still hard to believe that Jack Sparrow chose to save his life, so he prefers to think about Elizabeth. Without her there would be no goal, no purpose to the endless years of traveling between the worlds on a ship crewed by dead men. He never thought he’d come to understand Jones so much, but in a way he sees how committing to the task would be impossible when that hope abandoned him. Sometimes Will plays the great organ with his scarred fingers. He’s not very good, but it’s nice to have something to do now and then that isn’t related to ferrying souls. And the music cheers the crew up. 

The scar is almost painful to look at during his lowest moments. Then, it’s just a reminder of what he can’t have. What’s too far across the ocean for him to even try and reach out to. During those low moments it almost seems easier to let himself go the same way as Davy Jones. 

But he gets through the lows, because he has to. Because every now and then he’ll get to see Elizabeth and Henry. Henry, who still hasn’t gotten tired of the story of Isla de Muerta when they meet up for he first time since he asked Will about it. This time, Will and Elizabeth tell it together and they both get to hear each other’s side of the story. Things they never thought to mention to each other, like Elizabeth’s time alone with Barbossa. It’s odd to hear her tell Barbossa as the villain of a story where they’re the heroes, mainly because Will meets Barbossa a lot. It’s become blatantly obvious to him why Jack and Barbossa could never work together, their methods are far too different. It feels like each time Will sees Barbossa the pirate has a new ship in his ever growing fleet and Will can’t help but feel a sense of victory the day he notices the _Black Pearl_ missing from it. 

And then one day he sees her. She’s waiting by a shipwreck, as imposing as ever, even without Barbossa as her captain. Will suspects that the sight of the _Pearl_ will always feel somewhat threatening to him. It’s hard to forget how dangerous she is, even though Jack loves her so much. 

It’s a relief to see Jack. Will almost says it out loud, but he knows better than that. Still, he lets himself smile. He feels like Jack has earned that. They talk as the souls from the shipwreck board the _Dutchman_ and Will is amazed by how little Jack has changed. He still talks to Will like to a kid, not the captain of a ghost ship feared across the seas, and Will finds himself enjoying it. Even his own father seems to speak to him with some manner of respect. Not to a son, but to a captain. Jack, on the other hand, asks him how in the world he was able to produce a child ”with your ’condition’ and all” and about how old he is again. On a whim Will tells him to guess and he says twenty. Jack’s reaction when Will corrects him might be one of the funniest things he’s seen in a while. Then he has to confirm that, yes, Henry is eight now and yes, he’s growing up on a ship, much to Jack’s delight. After that he keeps asking questions about Henry. Will doesn’t think he’s ever asked anything before, so he answers as many questions as he can and somehow he ends up telling Jack about Henry’s fascination with the story of Isla de Muerta. When he mentions that Jack is one of the heroes in that story it’s the first time he ever sees Jack without anything to say. He would say that the notorious captain Sparrow is touched, but that seems a little too unlikely even for a man living without his heart. 

When the _Pearl_ and the _Dutchman_ go their separate ways Will swears he can see Jack unwind the piece of fabric he usually has wrapped around his hand.


	3. Jack

Jack has scars, far too many to count. 

He’s never paid them much thought. Some people see them as memories, but he prefers to keep the past close to him in other ways. The trinkets in his hair are all proof of that. He hasn’t even properly looked at the scar in his hand until the whelp points it out. It’s a lot better healed than much of the others he has. A clean cut straight across his palm, almost like one of the many natural lines in it. It’s surprising the wound didn’t end up infected on the way back from Isla de Muerta. The _Dauntless’_ brig was not the cleanest, but then again Jack has never been one to get sick. 

He does scar, though, and he takes his time considering this particular part of his collection. More and more he’ll trace it with his fingers when he finds himself with nothing to do. The _Pearl, his Pearl,_ crosses the sea far more than any man should do in a lifetime and Jack learns the way his scarred palm feels by heart. It’s a good reminder that this isn’t just some unnaturally pleasant hallucination. It’s real. It’s the goal he has worked for and realized twice now, and he’ll work for it again if it ever becomes necessary. It’s not that he _needs_ a reminder, it’s just good to have the scar as proof that he’ll never let the _Pearl_ go. 

And of course, the Turner lad seems to find it interesting. The first time Jack meets him he almost wants to leave the _Empress_ and never sail on the same ocean again because he somehow looks just like both his mother and father, and if that’s not reason to concern then Jack doesn’t know what is. But he has to admit that the lad is sweet. Not to anyone who can hear, obviously, except maybe the lad, one day. He can only hope Elizabeth doesn’t notice him smiling, because that is definitely not an image he’d like her to remember. Captain Jack Sparrow having fun with a little kid, he’s certain Elizabeth can figure out a way to use that against him. Still it’s hard not to feel some fondness when a little kid calls you a hero, even if he personally wouldn’t agree. It all gets a little too much when Elizabeth tells him that Henry has tried getting a scar of his own on many occasions. Now he just has a line drawn across his palm, in fine ink no doubt stolen from a merchant vessel. He seems a little embarrassed when Elizabeth tells him to show it to Jack, but still shyly opens his hand. When Jack does the same Henry’s face lights up and he immediately asks if Jack can tell the story. 

”Not today kid” Jack closes his hand and Henry looks disappointed. 

”Why?” 

Jack grins and fishes a braid out of his hair. At the end of it is a coin he got from a viking grave he stumbled upon in Norway. Along with many other goods, of course, but this he could save seeing as it wasn’t worth much. He holds the coin up for Henry to admire. 

”Because I have other stories to tell” 

When he sails off Gibbs doesn’t say anything, but there’s a knowing smile on his face. Jack thinks he does a pretty good job of ignoring his first mate until he’s all alone on the quarterdeck. Gibbs has left to get some dinner and Jack can finally let go of the wheel for a second to pull a hand through his hair. He lingers at the braid next to his ear, much shorter than that morning and free from its weight. It was a little tricky to braid the coin into Henry’s shorter and much thinner hair, especially without Elizabeth noticing, and even trickier to convince the lad not to tell his mother. He’s not entirely sure he’s succeeded, but he figures his image can survive the dent if the kid does tell his mother. 

Jack toys with the braid for a while, feeling it brush against the scar in his palm. Then he lets it go, smiling to himself. His memory is in good hands.

**Author's Note:**

> can you even get scars in your hand?   
> (comments are appreciated, as always)


End file.
